Pres. Biden's speech about leaving Afghanistan and nation-building was at least consistent until he said "human rights will be the center of our foreign policy." How, when the bad guys use force and don't care about your diplomacy?
Non-military action is vital to promote human rights, and can be very effective. Economic tools and cultural norms are essential. But when the enemies of the free world realize you've taken force off the table, you have 15 years of democracy in retreat.
When Assad's regime was crumbling, Putin sent fighter jets to support him. Obama sent John Kerry. Ukraine, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Belarus, Afghanistan—they use force when they know the free world will not even agree on sanctions.
This is the sick joke of "the war is over" and "there is no military solution." The war goes on, and the destroyers of human life and human rights employ "military solutions" to fight it in your absence.
Biden's speech echoed this early statement: "Pres Biden is committed to a foreign policy that unites our democratic values with our diplomatic leadership, & one that is centered on the defense of democracy and the protection of human rights."—Sec. State Blinken, 24 Feb 2021
A fine sentiment in the spirit of Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn. The most moral foreign policy is also the most effective one, because it's consistent. This isn't "war mongering," it's values and consistency mongering. But has Biden walked the walk? Obviously not.
You cannot stand for human rights and democracy while making deals with its mortal enemies. It's not merely hypocrisy, it's the suicide of the law-based international order that dictators like Putin and Xi Jinping are actively trying to destroy.
I answered the facile, do-nothing response that any effort to stand up to actual aggressors is "warmongering" in 2015. Appeasement and inaction have killed more people than any intervention. thedailybeast.com/springtime-for…
"Well at least WE didn't murder anybody!" is what the isolationists and peace-mongers are left with as the slaughters and crackdowns continue. If that's "centering human rights and democracy" you're no better than Trump even if you say you feel bad about it.
Biden meets the Ukrainian president Zelensky today in DC. The country that is actually fighting like hell for Biden's "human rights and democracy" against Putin's invading dictatorship. So far, Biden has only aided Putin in that fight, and lip service won't change that.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Kasparov63

2 Sep
Calling people "alarmist" is usually just a way of trying to discredit them, demonstrated by the fact that it goes on even after they've been proven correct.
When they cannot answer your arguments or refute the facts, they attack your tone and tactics. But that's not what they really want. They want you to stop, to shut up, to be ignored.
If you weren't right, they wouldn't care. When I joined others in Russia in 2005 to warn that Putin was creating a dictatorship, I was called hysterical, alarmist, etc. Instead of stopping as it all came true, the attacks continued.
Read 6 tweets
8 Aug
A tragedy and a shame. Many will be slaughtered and millions will be cast back into the Taliban dark ages. And it shows America is a untrustworthy ally, in contrast with dictators like Putin who show loyalty to their vile peers and allies. npr.org/2021/08/08/102…
I supported Biden over Trump without reservations in 2020. He had the chance to set America back on the path of standing for good, for the values of its founding. Instead, he is charting a course for the most defeatist and defeated US foreign policy in memory.
We saw in Obama the failure of trying to be friends with everyone. We saw in Trump a transactional, valueless president who used foreign policy for personal gain. If America is to mean anything more than cliches about freedom, it must show it in its actions.
Read 4 tweets
21 Jul
Germany & US collude with Putin to undermine Ukrainian, EU, and global security for a pipeline & cash. Steinmeier, Merkel & Maas, who said appeasing Putin would be "good for Russian civil society" before Navalny was nearly murdered and jailed. dw.com/en/just-in-us-…
Whenever Putin attacks, I'm asked "what do we do?" You act before there's an attack. Establish deterrence, create leverage against things Putin cares about. You can't reinforce him with deals and then act surprised when he attacks again.
Putin needs foreign conflict and chaos to stay in power in Russia. He can't stop. He also needs lucrative deals with the West to solidify his standing as guarantor of his oligarchs' fortunes & families abroad. Deals like Nord Stream 2.
Read 4 tweets
9 Jul
Putin promotes these attacks and won't end them unless there is action. Hitting Russian infrastructure would be cruel and pointless. It's already a mess and Putin wouldn't care. Go after their money.
If a few billion dollars of looted assets disappeared from Putin & his oligarch pals' accounts, these ransomware attacks would stop. The question has always been if US & EU are willing to do what is necessary to defend themselves.
Responding diplomatically is a waste of time and law enforcement is limited against state actors and those with state protection. And they know it. New mechanisms are needed to meet new threats, or you keep losing.
Read 4 tweets
2 Jul
Putin boasts that he could have sunk a British warship and nothing would have happened. Xi Jinping says he'll take Taiwan, an independent nation, when he wants. Testing the waters for a response. And?
Everyone saying "it's just words" will act surprised when action follows words, as it did in Ukraine and Hong Kong. Deterrence is based on standing up to the smallest aggressions to prevent bigger ones.
Putin and Xi know well that the West has the power to stand up to them. So when they choose not to, it's interpreted as a green light, and the "grave concerns" as performance.
Read 4 tweets
26 Jun
Joke on Russian internet: "Putin showing Merkel and Macron the salary charts of Rosneft and Gazprom."
Dependence on dictatorships like Putin's Russia is a package deal. You can't separate business from human rights and defending your democracy. The corruption spreads like a gas leak until it explodes.
Europe can't separate energy or business from politics when Putin won't. The list of ways to defend and deter includes "dictatorship substitution". I wrote about it specifically re energy in 2015: energyfuse.org/garry-kasparov…
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(